Running Fast Down Memory Lane
by WhyDoYouCare0
Summary: Old memories are brought back up when Eggman reverts back to his days as Robotnik. The robotiscizers are started up again in Robotropolis, the old robots revised to be better, stronger and more lethal-along with new tricks. Along with this, the new resurfaced memories throws the Team off their feet even farther. (Rated T just in case.)
1. Chapter 1

The twelve-year-old, two tailed fox didn't feel the bright red robotic eyes following his every move, detecting every sound he made. He shuffled his fingers through his gloves, looking around the soft and peaceful forest, not too far from his home village. Knothole had expanded out into the real world after Robotnik's reign ended and Eggman replaced him—he was really just a revision of Robotnik, really. Same person, different tactics.

Knothole was now a fully functional village the homes still humble, like before when in hiding, but much bigger. Most Mobians lived there. There was also a large castle built, where the Acorns lived—all but Sally, who refused to give up her Freedom Fighter days until Eggman was taken care of.

Tails stopped walking, his large, tentative ears flickering backwards. He had finally detected the robot behind him. His fur stood up, chills spreading throughout his spine. He took a deep breath, reminding himself he was no longer a helpless nine-year-old.

He turned around fast, keeping total control of how much sound he made. He was met with a familiar face, one he hadn't seen for years. He thought Robotnik no longer existed, replaced for good by Eggman. What's with the sudden change?

The Swatbot moved at him, charging and nearly running him over. Tails was confused and stunned, but reluctant to yell for help. Swatbots were weak compared to things they fought nowadays, why would Eggman go back? There has to be a trick to this.

And Tails was right about that. The Swatbot's metal hands burst into silver flame. "What?!" Tails squeaked. Silver fire? Eggman never used fire, but what's silver fire!? On a Swatbot, no less!

Tails hovered up into the air, over a small dart of fire that was flung at his chest. He took a fast, deep breath and curled himself into a spin-dash that Sonic taught him over their years of friendship. It worked better with Sonic by his side, with those sharp spines, but Tails could make his double-tails almost as lethal.

He spun himself into the head of the Swatbot, listening to the sawing against the metal before being flung back into a tree by its arm. Any normal Swatbot would be dead by now—oh, right, this is Eggman's Swatbot. New, remade, and ready to kill.

At this point, he was ready to yell for help. "No, Tails, you can handle yourself against a stupid Swatbot!" He told himself, charging back down to its head with triple his original sawing power. Soon he felt dizzy, but kept himself going with pure will.

Finally he felt the strong metal helmet of the Swatbot give in, sawing into its motherboard-like-brain, through and out of the throat, nearly tearing it in two. He knew it wouldn't be getting up and attacking again, after that. He felt proud before realizing more might be coming. He knew he had to get back to the Freedom Fighters and tell them what he saw.

"Come on, Tails, don't be silly. Swatbots aren't around anymore." Sonic said, waving a hand towards his younger friend dramatically.

"Sonic's right, Tails. Eggman scrapped the idea of Swatbots and other robots like it when he revised his schematics." Sally backed him up, lifting a mug to her lips and taking a small drink of hot ginger tea. Sonic was standing by the table she sat at, stretching himself out as if he had just woken up or was planning on exercising. Probably both.

"I mean it, guys! It was a Swatbot, no mistaking it! Except it was tougher, and…and…it had fire! Fire!" Tails said desperately, looking to Sonic who was most likely to trust him. Both of them stopped, looking over to him without moving at all.

Sonic let his arms drop from above his head while Sally went back to drinking her tea and looking over something in a medium sized book, looking somewhat like a school textbook with lined writing paper instead of facts.

"You're making your story sound more and more silly, lil' buddy. Just give it up, Eggman stopped making Swatbots. You aren't gonna convince us." Sonic said with a sigh, stretching his legs out again before calming down and sitting half on the table. Sally gave him a brief glare, before looking back to the scribbled notes in her book.

"Come on, Sonic. You want evidence? I'll show you! Just come with me!" Tails said, folding his arms in frustration. Sonic raised his hands in defense, creasing his eyebrows and closing his eyes with a smile.

"Okay, I guess, if you want to prove it that badly. I needed to go out for a run, anyways." He sighed, standing up and dragging Tails gently to the door with by his ear. Tails hovered up into the air, staying stationary as Sonic kicked into full blast, dragging him fast in the air. Tails yelled over the winds the directions to the path he took.

Sonic stopped when he saw the Swatbot. His eyes were wide as Tails hovered down next to him. He looked really, really confused. "See? A Swatbot." Tails said.

Sonic said nothing until regaining his ability to speak. "Why would Eggman go back to his days as Robotnik?"


	2. Chapter 2

After some more persuading from Tails, Sonic finally steps in and admits Tails is right. The others reluctantly take his word for it. A few days later the rumors start like wildfire, some citizens approaching individual Freedom Fighters and asking them questions about it. Eventually the questions came so much they needed a meeting about it.

"What have you guys been saying?" Sally asked, leaning on the wall and looking at the group around the room.

"We've all been sayin' not ta worry." Bunnie replied with a half-smile. The others nodded in silence.

"So we just ignore them and tell them to scram. That wasn't really worth a meeting, Sal." Sonic said, folding his arms and letting them rest. Tails sat down on the table next to him, nodding.

"No guys," Amy piped up from the wall near Sally. "She probably has something else to say." Amy said with a glint in her eyes, looking over to Sonic for approval. He just gave her a weird look before replacing it with a friendly smile. Though Amy had matured, her crush on him would still be active, even as she grew older.

"She's right. Antoine took this down," Sally started, reaching behind her legs and pulling out one of the bots Robotnik used to spy. "earlier today. He brought it to me as soon as he de-activated it." Antoine nodded proudly, twirling his sword around, nearly dropping it.

"So what's that mean?" Sonic asked boredly, drumming his fingers on his arm, resisting the urge to tap his foot. He held back, knowing Sally's mind would explode. Ever since the original Robotnik days, his foot tapping had driven her mad—but even now, the two of them being nineteen, it still drove her completely insane.

"It means Eggman is in full-Robotnik mode." Amy said quickly before Sally could reply. Everyone looked at her except Bunnie and Antoine, who were silent in the corner, probably whispering about their own things.

"Oh. Thanks Amy." Sonic said calmly and slowly, carefully choosing his tone of voice so Amy wouldn't overreact. Amy just casually nodded but a proud smile was brought onto her lips. He gave her a small thumbs-up.

"She's right. Which means that Eggman—Robotnik—will be using his old tricks. This includes Buzz Bombers, these Stealth Bots, the old-style airships and Swatbots." Sally said, tossing the carcass of the spy bot on the round table.

"But wait." Tails continued her sentence himself. "The Swatbots were different, re-invented, better. Robotnik isn't stupid enough to stick to his old tricks, knowing that we've grown stronger. So, while we have to adapt to the old robots again…"

"He has newer tricks and traps ready that will take us by surprise. Yeesh, he really out-did himself." Sonic finished. He reached up and scratched behind his ear, watching his feet for a few seconds.

Sally and Amy nodded in agreement to the boys additives. Bunnie and Antoine had left soon after the conversation had ended, since they knew as much as they had to. The room was silent, almost awkwardly silent.

"What…now?" Sonic asked quietly. Nobody replied for a while.

"I don't know." Tails said dumbly.

"Oh!" Sally randomly exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "If Eggman is now Robotnik, do you think he's making Robotropolis active again? Will it pollute again? Will we have to go back into hiding?" Eventually she just began to sound frantic. Sonic walked over quickly and put a hand on her shoulder, rubbing her head to calm her down.

"Most likely. I'm not sure about the pollution, E—Robotnik at this point, his body would disagree with the pollution. Anyways, he knows where we are. No pollution, no hiding, but the factories will start up again. Robotiscizers…" Tails muttered.

"Well then, if it's true he's probably already given the city its life back. He may be fast with that, but I'm faster. I'll run over there today and check out the scene." Sonic said casually with a grin. The others were completely silent, staring at them with synchronized thoughts.

"If the Robotiscizers are active, and the robot Mobians active…" Amy started slowly. Sonic still wasn't getting it through his skull, but he was listening.

"Sonic, your Dad…" Tails mumbled. Sonic's ears flew back onto his skull, his eyebrows creasing with the sudden realization that his Dad could lose control again.

"No, no, no," Sonic repeated in a whisper. "If he turns, he isn't my Dad anymore, got that?" he barked. The room fell silent, the air thickening. "If he turns…we won't let him go back to Robotropolis. Under any circumstances. Understand? He _doesn't_ leave Knothole!"

"But if he stays, he could destroy the town…" Sally said softly. Sonic took a deep breath, trying to calm him down but the panic was building in his chest.

"If we lock him up for a…little while, I'm sure he'll understand. I'm sure he would do that to any of us. Just get someone powerful to watch him and if he changes get him to push back. And for now, forget about him." Sonic said, his voice tired but calmed. "You guys stay here and do whatever, I'm going to Robotropolis."

"I'm going with you." Sally said firmly. Sonic looked over to her with an annoyed look but it quickly faded as he swooped her up into his arms.

"Alright. You two go chill out with my family, I'm sure they'll let you hang around. And, don't be shy about explaining everything to my Dad, he'll totally get it." Sonic said. Amy and Tails nodded, jogging off together and starting a conversation.

Sonic stepped out of the doorway, pausing. "Hang on tight _Princess_." Sonic teased, a big smirk spreading onto his lips. Sally gave him a glare, warning him not to go too fast; but that only encouraged him to go faster than he planned.

Without any warm up he took off into figure eight, his legs disappearing into the blur of his bright red shoes moving fast in an eight form. Behind him formed large dust clouds and fire on the ground. Sally screamed briefly but closing her mouth, fearing she'd inhale dust or anything else. Sonic simply laughed, tilting his head down slightly to aim dust out of his eyes.

"Amy? Tails? What are you two doing here?" Sonic's mother opened the door, surprised but happy to see the two Freedom Fighters at her door.

"Oh…you know…to stop by…" Tails lied through his teeth.

"Can we come in now?" Amy added quickly. Bernadette made a confused look but didn't argue for the two to step inside.

"Is there something going on?" Bernadette asked with her mother-concern-voice.

"Ah—well—you see…" Tails stuttered before Jules came into the room.

"Bernie, Amy, Tails," Jules recognized, walking over to them. "What's happening now?"

Amy took a deep breath, remembering how Sonic said not to be shy about it. She decided to come right out with it to hopefully impress him or earn more respect. "Eggman has reverted back to his Robotnik ways, so the old robots are back and Robotropolis is active, and he has new tricks coming along with the older ones. Sonic is worried that his Dad might lose control again, and wanted us to come right out and tell you!" Amy blurted, talking fast with her eyes closed shut. The room was silent as the two older hedgehogs let that sink into their minds.

"That's…very thoughtful of him." Jules said slowly. Bernadette was obviously still thinking about it.

"It is." She agreed, but obviously wasn't content with her thought process. This was a big concern to her, after losing her entire family and being Robotiscized along with Jules, (though she regained a flesh and blood state) she wasn't ready to lose him again.

"Thank you two for stopping by, and tell Sonic that we'll be careful. I'll call his uncle today and tell him to stay here for a while. He knows what to do if I lose control of myself." Jules said reassuringly, rubbing Tails's head gently.

"And tell him we love him too," Bernadette immediately added. She smiled and nuzzled herself into Jules's shoulder, subliminally telling him they needed to talk this over further once the two left.

"We will. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Hedgehog for being so understanding," Tails said with a chirp in his voice. Amy smiled and nodded in agreement as the two hugged them and left.

"There it is, Robotropolis. Home to dorks and killers, screams bad news." Sonic mused.

"Sonic, the smoke…it's active again." Sally said in all seriousness. Sonic skid to a stop at the edge of the city, setting her down to rest his arms and look at the place.

"Sure, the buildings, Robotiscizers and factories are active, I guess…" Sonic concluded. "But the streets are still probably cluttered from how we left the place. Which means there will be the new Swatbots and possibly new bots all around cleaning the paths and around the factories."

Sally tugged on her blue vest to straighten it and fit it snugly on her shoulders. "Agreed. Should we go in?" She asked, looking over to him from the corner of her eye. She noticed the mask on his face—a figurative mask.

Sonic's mask ranged from two faces to hide his emotion. Either a smirk or a focused face. He used this to hide any unwanted emotion from the team so they wouldn't worry about him; he hated it when they worried about him. The only one that had figured out his mask was Sally, but the first time she asked and lied, the second time he just got frustrated and left.

"You're making that face again." Sally said firmly, seeing his focused mask. Sonic glanced over to her, his straight mouth lowering down into a frown.

"Excuse me?" He hissed, an obvious warning that she should back off. Sonic was rarely angry, everyone knew, but when questioned by his mask he would get angry. When he was trapped in bad thoughts in his mind or needed to cry, he would lash out at people who asked or tried to help. The focused face signified these emotions, while the smirk just meant he was terrified. It was tricky with the smirk; the only way to decode that mask was to look at his eyes, because he meant to be smiling half the time.

Sally had backed off of his case many times before. But the two were nineteen now, he should be more mature. She knew he was just immature naturally and there was no changing it, but he wasn't a liar—and part of being honest is admitting when you can't handle something. "Don't give me that, Sonic. We're both adults. If we need to go home, admit it and we'll leave." She barked.

Sonic slowly turned on his heels to glare at her. His glares were normally playful, but this one stabbed knives into her mind. "_YOU._ Can go home. I'm staying _right_ here." He said in a warning voice. Sally, at this point, decided not to distress his mind anymore.

"I'm going to stay right here, because I know you won't let me go in at this point. So go on, if you're so brave, go on in alone!" Sally snapped. Sonic's ears flew back, his brow furrowing.

"You know what, fine!" He growled, taking a long step until he was up against her. He grabbed her by the arms, lifting her off her feet and giving her a long kiss. "Now stay safe and don't leave!"

With that, he sped off with a loud zip sound. Sally kept a stern look on her face until his dust trail had disappeared around a corner. "His immaturity is going to end the world someday." She laughed to herself. Even though he was a cocky, immature pain in the ass, nobody could resist not loving him.

She pulled out Nicole, asking her to create a hologram following him. The hologram configured itself in the air in front of her. He was running fast, occasionally jumping and sawing through one of the new, tougher Swatbots like it was butter. She knew he wouldn't be able to do that again, but he was just spiting her for yelling.

Sonic raced through the cluttered streets of the old, but soon-to-be new Robotropolis. He finally found a street that had been untouched for now. He stopped running to catch his breath and let anything he needed to out. He leaned on the wall, taking a deep shaky breath. "Like she said, you're an adult. Those are just memories. Everything is better now."

Sonic couldn't help but look at where the old trains would take off. He remembered when they were all young, when he was forced to leave his Uncle under the reign of Robotnik for so many years. He had to remind himself that his family had been returned, he was together with Sally and everything was oh-so-calm…for now.

"Now then, let's finish the perimeter of this dump," Sonic said, straightening his back before something caught his eye. He picked up the old robotic carcass of a familiar…chicken robot. He narrowed his eyes, memories of seeing the chicken on Robotnik's shoulder flashing in his eyes—so vivid and real it was almost visible against the whites of his eyes. "Yeah, right. Let's see a dead chicken fly." He mumbled angrily, tossing it into the air and drop kicking it into the horizon. He turned away on his heel, taking off to finish running the perimeter.

He found himself quickly back to where Sally was, but saw something unexpected. She was holding her arm, blood dripping in her fingers. "Sonic! I saw some old Robotiscized Mobians, I think the…"

Sonic stopped her flow of speech by picking her up with a stern face. "Sonic the Hedgehog! We have to go and see if the Robotiscizers are up! Your dad!" She barked. Sonic wasn't having it.

"No, we're going home. You have a cut, we're going _home_. My dad probably called Uncle Chuck to take care of him if he changed, and I'm sure my mom could handle herself in that situation. If not, the Freedom Fighters have her covered. I'll come back alone or with Antoine or Amy later." Sonic explained quickly, blasting off into full run before she could protest.

When they finally got back to the Freedom Fighter's hut, Sonic found his mother sitting and conversing with Amy and Tails. Sonic quickly sent Sally away with Bunnie and Antoine, giving her a kiss on the cheek as they left. He then approached his mother with a worried look in his eyes, his ears back.

"Hey guys…" He muttered, fearing the worst. Bernadette instantly picked up on his expression; he was almost begging to know what happened.

"I'm sorry, Sonic. Uncle Chuck was there to help and he sent me off to be with the Freedom Fighters and get help if he needed it…there's been no word so far." Bernadette stood up, wrapping her arms around her son. But he wasn't in the mood to hug her back, he just stared forward with a devastated look in his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

He kicked up dust as he ran through the newly cleaned Robotropolis. One month after his first fight with his Robotiscized father, one month after it all came together. One month after a period had peace had been ended with a surprise.

He listened to his feet pad against the ground as he made a smooth corner, face fixed with determination to see another enemy to destroy and continue on his way. So far, he had only been around the perimeter, to wary to venture to the center of the busy, factory-cluttered city. But tonight he had been sent on a mission to infiltrate the first Robotiscizer factory he saw, and disable it as best he could.

He had been sent with Nicole so he could disable it with technology like Sally would do, but everyone knew he would do it the old way—saw through the control panel, screens and actual machine. He was proud of the quality of ignorance.

Sonic slowly stopped running, his eyes locking on to a large chute next to him, leading to a tunnel into a large egg-shaped building. He recognized the low hanging chute as something the new, robot-Mobians were sent down so they could walk about Robotropolis after being Robotiscized.

Sonic slowly moved closer to it before realizing nothing would be coming down for at least a few more weeks. Robotnik didn't have his claws on any other Mobians so far and was probably still thinking of a plan. Sonic knew there was no way he could run just right up, he would have to go…slowly. He felt like throwing up just thinking about going slow.

But he had no choice if he was going to complete the mission. The group could wait…oh…twenty minutes more than expected. Sonic started going straight up the tall tube, his legs pressed up against each wall along with his hands. And like this, he shuffled straight upward for a good fifteen minutes until finally reaching a sharp corner.

He glanced to the corner and made a flustered face, confused on how he would get there. Bravely he released his hands from the wall, only his legs holding him up in the uncomfortable splits position. He reached over, wrapping his fingers around the very sharp edge, releasing his legs and just dangling. He felt his fingers slip off the thin edge, falling for a few seconds before catching him. He looked up and found himself losing probably another five minutes.

"Trust me guys, I'd much rather wait 30 minutes than move this slowly." He muttered angrily to himself. He recalled his last trip to Robotropolis, and as most of it was boring, he at least had his adrenaline pumping. This just felt like sitting at home staring at paint dry! Any physical pain would be less torture than this.

He finally made his way into the second area of the tube, where he could run. He noticed this area hadn't been as far as repaired yet—it was rusted and cracked all around. He knew running could end up with him taking a fatal fall, but he was _not_ going to go slow. Danger or not, he needed fast, and he needed it now.

Without any preparation he took off, listening to chunks of rusted metal fall under his feet. But at the speed he was going, he simply hovered over the gaps his feet made. Near the end he tripped up, his leg nearly falling if he hadn't caught himself, but he did manage to give himself a bad, rusty cut.

Ignoring it, determined to get his adrenaline pumping, he sped up his running, charging right into the room the tunnel ended in. Of course the entrance to the room was only big enough for the average person; he cut some corners, literally.

The room he ended up in was the actual Robotiscizer room. The machines had changed drastically from when he last saw them. Not many things leave him speechless in fear, but this contraption managed to do the job quick and fast.

Robotnik had realized that the Freedom Fighters developed a 'de-Robotiscizer' or a way to re-gain free will. But after some spying, he found out that Sonic's father stayed Robotiscized because he was wounded too badly in his normal form and would die. He took advantage of this knowledge in creating the new Robotiscizer.

A large, glass tube was stationed on top of a large metal pedestal, high enough to look up at the tube. Inside of it was a pull-out of a giant silver spike. Sonic lifted himself onto the pedestal, running his hands over the glass tube. He put himself up against it, realizing that once inside this tube, a host would push the spike right…through your heart…

He obviously figured in the seconds before you died, the spike would Robotiscize you from the inside…somehow. He shivered while picturing innocent Mobians going through this. He jumped off the pedestal and crept as far away from the tube as he could. So simple, boring looking, but so terrifying.

Sonic took his mind off it by remembering his mission. "Destroy computer-ey stuff, shut down more complicated stuff that I didn't remember the names of, and destroy the Robotiscizers. So, in Sonic language, which means…fuck shit up. No problem." His own witty jokes brought a smile back onto his face.

He considered himself lucky the room was surrounded by long counters, full of computers, monitors, levers and buttons, viewing screens and keyboards. Of course it made almost no sense to the simple-minded hedgehog, so he just decided to go with the safe route—destroy everything. This was all Robotnik's, anyways, and why not destroy all his toys while you've got the chance?

First, he pulled himself onto the beginning of the counter, jumping up into an immediate Spin-Dash (Hard to pull off, mind you), and began sawing the entire counter into one big piece. As soon as he hit the opposite wall he rode the wall up, destroying the monitors and extra buttons over the original counters.

Once all of that was taken care of and threatening to catch fire, he moved on to the glass tubes. After picturing the new process he was wary to touch them, go close to them but more importantly go through them. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that there was no one here to operate them. _But wait, if this is all new, what if there doesn't have to be an operator? Sonic, don't be stupid. Why else would there be silly buttons and cool looking levers all around the Robotiscization room? Oh, that's a good point, Sonic! Thanks! No problem, Sonic! _He thought happily.

He reared back, riding the pedestal wall up to the Robotiscizer tube and sawing right through the re-enforced glass like it was soft cake dough. He landed on the other side, rubbing his gloves together with a proud smirk. "That was way too easy!" He laughed triumphantly. The smile was wiped off his face as he froze.

"That was…way too easy." He repeated warily.


End file.
